allyb646
11-14-2013, 07:34 PM
Jason pushed the throttle of the helicopter forward just as the landing skids slammed into the side of the Humvee! Flipping it and the dune buggy behind it onto their rooves. The backdoors of the Humvee busted open and a dark figure stumbled out carrying the limp body of Lieutenant Olivia Coln.
“Jesus Jim, is she alright?” Jason asked as he lifted the chopper off the ground
“She’s fine; she just received the hardest hit I've ever seen.”
“What happened?”
“Some ******* hit her in the face the butt of his gun.”
“****.”
“Damn right, ****, he hit her so hard it put out instantly, I went to catch her and the bloody bastard tried to shoot me.”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah I’m fine.”
“What are we going to do now?”
“Right now we are going back to the FOB.”
“To do what sit on our arses and wait to get killed?”
“I’m going to have a word with General McCollum.”
Jim looked into the cockpit of the helicopter; Jason’s face was illuminated by the instruments on the dashboard, his expression determined, angry and undisturbed.
Just as the skids touched ground Liv came to. She had a massive bruise on her face that covered her whole cheek and eye. Jason jumped out of the pilot’s seat to check on her.
“Awww my head.”
When she opened her eyes she saw Jason in front of her and with that she wrapped her arms around his neck. Everybody in the camp had been noticing the two getting close but not that close. Jim and Southman just stood there smiling, it was Jim who first picked up on it, Liv and Jason had been dating but tried to hide it from the others and they had done a **** job.
“Anything you want to tell us Jase?”
“Well I’m pretty sure you’ve figured it out now.”
Jim stood there his arms crossed nodding smugly.
“Liv are you right to walk?”
“Yeah.”
“Southman could you help Liv back to her bunk I’m going to have a word with General McCollum.”
As Southman and Jim helped Liv up, Jason headed over to the VIP building. When he knocked on the door no response came so after waiting a moment he opened the door to find General McCollum on the concrete floor with a bullet wound that went straight through his chest. Jason leapt into action, kneeling over the General pumping his chest performing CPR whilst shouting for help.
“I need help in here!”
Moments after Jason called out two medics came in and four minutes later a doctor declared General McCollum dead.
When Jason arrived back at his bunk the others were waiting up, Liv sitting with an ice pack on her head. When he walked in the others noticed that Jason’s hands and front were covered in blood.
“What the hell did you do?”
“It’s not what I did it’s what Eln did.”
“Well?”
“McCollum got the times wrong and Eln killed him as punishment for the mistake.”
“So McCollum was leaking about the mission?”
“Yeah.”
Jason sat down beside Liv and put his arm around her.
“How’s your head?”
“Sore.”
Liv removed the ice pack, showing that that bruise had gotten worse; it had gone from a light purple colour to being a deep blue-black.
“Here show me.”
Liv turned her face toward Jason. As went to touch her cheek she pulled away and winced.
“The bloody bastard’s broken your cheek bone.”
“Feels like he broke my whole face.”
Jason pulled Liv into a tight hug.
“Alright I don’t know about you guys but I’m stuffed I’m going to bed.”
Jason lay down on his bed and closed his eyes and fell into a deep, deep sleep; his dreams were filled with haunting images of his mother and father’s death.
Jason’s parents had been driving on a lonely country road leading up to their farm house, when a black Humvee came out of nowhere and rammed them off the road into a tree. It wasn’t the crash that killed them; it was the hail of bullets that did it. At first everyone thought that it was just some mad man but it now occurred to Jason that it was indeed Colonel Peter Eln who was now in Jason's bad books and when you achieve that status you don’t have much longer to live.
In the morning Jason was woken by a firm hand shaking him awake.
“Captain Bowen! Wake up!”
Jason wearily opened his eyes and saw Colonel Challen standing before him.
“Yes Sir.”
“Captain Bowen I need to speak to you about the death of General McCollum.”
“Alright then.”
Jason got up and walked toward the Colonel’s office through the early morning fog.
“Captain I have no idea as to the reason General McCollum died last night and I was hoping you would know.”
“Well as a matter of fact I do know. When I told the General what time we were leaving on a recovery mission last night he told Colonel Eln, but when he told him got the times wrong and Eln killed him as a punishment.”
“Well it sounds like we need to go and find Eln.”
“It does Sir, but I think we may need more man power.”
“Well Captain this time I would like to go with you and I will wanting to take a few more people, of your choice of course.”
“Alright then.”
A group of soldiers sat in the back of two military trucks most of them not known for their names but their reputation. Jason had handpicked them, some coming from other provinces in Afghanistan and others being drafted in from Australia most had trained for this type of mission their whole life.
Jason sat in the front of the first truck with Challen at the wheel.
“Colonel why did you want to come with us?”
“First of all quit this Colonel business, call me Lachlan and I wanted to come because I want Eln’s *** on a plate, the General was my friend and I believe that McCollum was forced into doing what he did, I reckon Eln had a knife to his throat the whole time.”
When the convoy arrived at their destination, late at night they arrived silently leaving the trucks a distance up the road, Lachlan was in charge of half the unit which had split off to circle round behind Eln.
A day earlier Jason had received intell from a local farmer who had said he’d seen two Humvees and a group of American soldiers camped in the forest behind his house. When Jason looked into it, he found out that on no data base did it say that Americans were running an operation in Helmand Province he knew it was Eln.
It had been almost two months since the last time Jason had seen Eln and in that time a lot had happened; like road side attacks on other Australian Special forces units and more and more late night attacks on FOB Resolute from unknown attackers. These incidents had all happened on nights and days that Jason’s unit had been scheduled to go out on a patrol or reconnaissance mission it seemed like too much of a coincidence to Jason.
As the unit that Jason was commanding advanced closer to Eln’s camp Jason started to feel uneasy.
“Liv this doesn’t feel right.”
“Yeah I know.”
“This isn’t like Eln, he always moves, he never stays in the same place for more than two days, and he’s apparently been here for over a week.”
“Strange…”
“I’m starting to think it’s a trap.”
“Yeah me too, but we have numbers he doesn’t.”
“True.”
“Jase stop!”
“What is it Liv?”
“I've spotted his fire, Jason we finally have him!”
Liv ran towards the clearing unaware of what lay ahead.
“Liv stop it’s a trap!”
She was too far away to hear Jason’s pleas by then.
Liv ran silently through the scrub, gun up ready to fire. When she emerged in the clearing her face froze with sheer terror. All she saw was an empty clearing with a few empty tents and a small camp fire, she then saw the dozens of gun barrels poking out of the bushes around the clearing, Liv was scared out of her mind so she slowly put her F88 on the ground, dropped to her knees and placed her hands on the back of her head, liv then closed her eyes and waited for the end. A single shot was fired and it was heard by everyone in the area.
Jason heard the shot and a chill instantly ran up his spine. Jason broke into a sprint but before he arrived at the edge of the tree line a firm hand grabbed him and pulled him back.
“Jason what are you doing?”
“Jim let me go!”
“No!”
“Jim they’ve got Liv, for Christs sake, I’m begging you, let me go.”
Jim took a moment and looked at Jason; Jason stared back at Jim through bloodshot, pleading eyes.
“Please Jim, just let me go, I need to do this.”
Jim let go of Jason and allowed him go off and help Liv.
Jason leapt out of the trees startling one of the soldiers. He saw a ring of men around Liv who was lying in a pool of blood, not moving.
“Well if it isn’t Captain Bowen stepping in to be a hero again.”
“Eln, if you let her go you can have me.”
Jason removed his mask to reveal his tear stained face.
“Well if it isn’t a little love on the battlefield.”
Jason drew his pistol and placed the barrel under his chin.
“Eln if you don’t let her go I’ll pull the trigger and you will have no password, I can delete this ****ing password as easy as pulling the trigger, don’t make me do it Colonel.”
Jim and Southman were watching this commence from the tree line. They watched Jason put his gun to his head, his legs were trembling wildly.
“Okay Captain it’s a deal, get some of your mates to come out and collect her.”
“No funny business Eln!”
Lachlan landed smoothly beside Southman.
“Southman what the hell is going on?”
“Jase is about to save Liv but die doing it.”
“Damn it.”
“Southman! Jim! I need you out here right now.” Jason called from the clearing.
Southman and Jim emerged from the scrub and just before Jim went to help Southman he stopped in front of Jason.
“Jase you don’t have to do this, we can get you and liv out of this, and we outnumber them.’
“Jim just get Liv the **** out of here that’s an order!” He shouted angrily.
“Yes Sir.”
The two men gently lifted Liv and as quick as a flash they were gone again leaving Jason alone in that deadly situation.
“Okay Captain drop your gun.” Eln said with a concerned tone
Jason dropped his gun and knelt on the ground, he then closed his eyes, just as Liv did but this time receiving the butt of a gun in the face, and then black.
When Jason awoke he could hear the muffled voices of men and he could see the insides of an aircraft; a plane; a considerably large one at that. He then heard another voice a very, very familiar one.
“Sir Bowen’s awake.”
“Well we can’t have that can we?”
Jason lifted his head to see Eln give a masked soldier a bottle containing a chemical of some sort. When he lifted his head further he saw the man soaking a rag in the chemical; chloroform. The man walked over purposefully and lifted Jason’s head gently before placing the rag over Jason's nose and mouth, but something stopped him.
“Sir he pretty out to it, if we want to keep him alive we need to give him some water and treatment, he’s not very comprehensive.”
“Okay do whatever you need to do to keep him alive for now.”
Jason saw the masked man leave the cell that he was lying in, the cold steel floor made him shiver. When the man came back he was holding a white first aid kit, the soldier crouched beside Jason and turned toward Eln.
“Jesus, what did your boys do to him?”
“He went crazy on us and tried to kill himself.”
“****!”
When the man turned back toward Jason his mask was off and Jason saw who he really was. The man caring for him was indeed some one that Jason knew, it was his adoptive brother; Markus. Markus was a tall strong man in his late twenties, his complexion was dark, and he had olive skin and dark, deep brown eyes. Markus was only two years younger than Jason who was thirty-one.
“Markus?” Jason wheezed
“That’s right Jase, it’s me. Jesus Jase you look terrible.”
Jason’s parents had adopted Markus when Jason was only four so he had known him his whole life.
“Soldier, do you know this man?”
“Yes Sir, he’s my brother.”
“Well Jason isn’t it a small world?” Eln smirked and turned back away in his chair.
Markus opened up the medical kit and took out some wipes and wiped away the dried blood on Jason’s face.
“So how have you been Jason?”
“What does it look like?” Jason coughed
“Good point you look like it’s been ****.”
Markus pulled Jason off the cold metal floor and onto the wooden bench that was in the cell and started to apply clean dressings to his wounds. Jason’s eyes started to flicker; he was going to pass out, Markus performed a quick, sharp slap on his face waking him up.
“Come on stay with me Jase. Colonel what the hell did your boys do to him? He’s nearly dead Sir.”
Colonel Eln rose from his chair and walked over to the door of the cell.
“Lieutenant do whatever it takes to keep him alive for now, and as for what my boys did to him, well that is none of your business, now get back to work.”
Markus turned back to Jason and set up a drip hanging from the bars of the cell.
“Markus…”
“What is it buddy?”
“Can you get me a drink?”
“Sure thing.”
Markus reached around his utility belt and found a black canteen and poured some icy water into Jason’s mouth.
“Sir that’s just about all I can do for him.”
“Well put that chloroform to use soldier, we can’t have him knowing where he is.”
Markus reached for the bottle and soaked the rag again.
“Sorry Jase.”
Markus then put the rag over Jason’s nose and mouth and yet again everything went black.
Back at FOB Resolute Jim was pacing the floor of the unit’s quarters and Southman was taking his anger out on an improvised punching bag in an improvised gym. Meanwhile Liv was being worried over in the hospital. She had four or five doctors standing over her bed arguing with Lachlan.
“Colonel she needs to be sent home for proper treatment!”
“And I say she gets treated here and stays here!”
“Sir she can’t get the treatment she needs here!”
Lachlan stepped toward the weedy framed doctor.
“Doctor she is one of the most important people in Afghanistan, we need her here!”
“Well she’s just one important person whose going home.”
“Okay smart fella step outside with me for a moment.”
Lachlan literally dragged the doctor outside into the heat.
“Now listen here! One of our men is being held captive and we need her to get him back! Would you deny a man’s freedom based on the fact that you think she needs to go home?”
“Sir I don’t follow your orders! She is going home!”
Lachlan lost his temper laying into the defenceless doctor with his fists. Challen hit the doctor repeatedly in the face and then stood up and looked down at the bleeding man.
“Doctor, a man’s life hangs in the balance right now and it just so happens to be, that that man and Lieutenant Coln love each other, now if that was me in Liv’s position I’d be pissed off, so if I were you, I’d watch out because when Liv is pissed off she has potential to kill.”
“She stays Sir.”
“I thought so.”
Jason woke up to the feeling of have the needle that was connected to the drip being ripped out of his arm. He was then grabbed by two men and dragged out of the plane and across a tarmac. It was dark so he couldn’t tell where he was, the only thing he did know was that he had left Afghanistan a few hours ago. He was dragged through a building he didn’t recognise at all. Jason was thrown through a door in which was a room that contained two chairs and a table; interrogation time.
Eln walked into the room purposefully stood over Jason and summoned in two masked men.
“Soldier! How do you expect me to speak to him when he’s slumped on the floor like that? Put him on the chair for Christ’s sake.”
The two men roughly threw Jason on to the folding chair that was in front of the table.
“So Captain, I never knew you had a brother, I was always under the illusion that you were an only child.”
“Colonel, Markus is my adoptive brother, I’m not blood related to him at all.”
“So he knows nothing of the password?”
“Nothing.”
“Well let’s cut to the chase, Jason what is the password?”
“I’ll tell you the password, the password is **** you! That’s what it is!”
Eln stood up to strike Jason when one of the masked men grabbed his wrist; Markus.
“What the hell are you playing at?”
“I’ve stood bystander for long! I’m not going to let you hit my brother!”
As if right on time Jason heard an enormous boom and then gun shots; they’d come for him. In an instant Lachlan busted down the door of the interrogation room and fired two shots into Eln’s torso, dropping him to the floor instantly. Markus let go of Eln and put Jason over his shoulder and ran toward the exit with Lachlan, Southman, Jim and Liv.
“Come on! Head for the plane.”
The group headed for the huge 747 that was idling on the runway of the airport. Markus scaled the staircase two steps at a time behind the others before bursting into the empty plane. James Kennelly had recovered and was out of hospital and behind the controls of the great plane, the whole unit was there.
When inside the plane Lachlan marched over towards where Markus was standing over Jason.
“What’s your name?”
“Lieutenant Markus Bowen. Sir!”
“Bowen? Are you at all related to Jason?”
“He’s my brother Sir.”
“You’re lying, Jason was an only child!”
“I was adopted into his family.”
“Challen settle down, it’s true, Markus is my adoptive brother.”
“Jase!”
Liv rushed to Jason’s side, kissing him gently on the cheek.
“God I thought I’d lost you.”
“You would’ve if wasn’t for Markus.”
Markus just stood there looking down at Jason.
“Well I’d like to stay and have a chat but I feel like **** and I would like to get some proper sleep.”
Southman and Jim helped Jase up and walked him to one of the bunks.
When Jason woke the scene in the plane had changed dramatically, there was people walking around busy as a bee and others just sitting around relaxing and there was now a light weight armoured vehicle in the cargo hold.
When he was fully awake Jason walked slowly toward where he had seen Eln relaxing earlier, only now he saw Jim, Bird and Southman.
“Well you’re up to walking now?”
“Yeah I still feel like I’ve got a hangover times twelve.”
“Yeah well you look like it too.”
“Thanks.”
“Oi Jase! You want something to eat?”
“Yeah I’m starving!”
Markus walked over from the kitchen part of the plane and dropped a bowl of soggy Weetabix on the table in front of Jason.
“Sorry it’s all we’ve got.”
Jason sat and stared at the bowl of mush in front of him before pushing it away.
“Sorry, I’m just not in the mood for cardboard.”
“Jase you need to eat it, you haven’t eaten anything since you left Afghanistan.”
“I’ll be fine that was only a few hours ago.”
Liv looked at Jim with a concerned expression.
“Jase, that was three days ago.”
“Oh wow, now I really feel hungry.”
Jason picked up the spoon and pulled the bowl closer to him and started shovelling the slop into his mouth.
Lachlan walked over and greeted Jason by giving him a sharp slap on the back making Jason gag on the food in his mouth.
“Ahem. Hello Lachlan.” He said while clearing his throat.
“Hello Jason, how are you?”
“Better.”
“Good.”
“What happened back in where ever we were?”
“Well Jason you were in Saudi Arabia back when Eln had you.’
“****. Oh and where are we headed now?”
“Well I understand you have a friend named Dudsey.”
“Yeah but I don’t know where he is.”
“We do, we just found out he’s in Germany, and we’ve even gotten in contact with him.”
Dudsey was a good friend of Jason’s; his proper name was Phillip Duddle. Phillip was an average heighted man who had golden blonde hair and to be honest he was a bit of a larrikin but was a master with explosives and artillery.
“Well how far are we from Germany?”
Lachlan pressed an intercom switch and spoke into it.
“James what’s the ETA in Germany?”
The intercom buzzed with a response a moment later.
“Ten minutes Sir.”
“Alright then ladies, pack your **** we’re going site seeing!”
With that the whole plane came alive and men were everywhere packing combat items and even personal effects.
Lachlan rose from his chair and shouted above the noise.
“Ladies and gentlemen may I inform you that we will be under cover so dress in civilian attire, but that is not a reason as to not to carry a weapon.”
The silver painted 747 touched grounds at the Frankfurt airport and the men and women that were on the plane unloaded and headed for the airport building passports in hand.
“Oi Jase how are we going to get past customs with all these weapons?”
“We’ll go to customs and ask to speak to someone in charge.”
Jason and Liv went to the same terminal when a customs officer stopped them.
“Bitte kommen diese weg für ein willkürlich tüte überprüfen.”
Translation: please come this way for a random bag check.
“Jason what do we do?”
“Just go with it for now. Okay.”
The pair followed the customs officer over to a bench where they were then ordered to put their luggage on the table. When the official opened the bag his eyes widened when he saw the F88 assault rifle, the two pistols along with the grenades.
“Sprechen zee deutsch?”
Translation: do you speak German?
“Ein Kleine.”
Trans: A little.
Jason slowly said his German phrases to the officer.
“Ich sprechen Englisch.”
Trans: I speak English
The officer immediately changed from speaking German to speaking English.
“So Mr…”
“Bowen.”
“So Mr Bowen why do you have so many undeclared weapons in your luggage?”
“Before we move on I would like to speak to someone in charge.”
“Mr Bowen I am in charge, I am the head customs officer.”
“Well I would like to explain things in private then, away from the wrong ears.”
The officer eyed Liv and Jason for a moment.
“Okay then and by the way my name is Christofer König.”
Christofer lead Liv and Jason down a long hallway and into an interview room. Before sitting down Jason placed the pistol that he had tucked into the belt of his jeans on the table in front of Christofer.
“So Mr Bowen would you tell as for the reason for all the undeclared weapons in your bags?”
“I’ll tell you as long as you promise that whatever I tell you in this room stay a secret, no one can find out.”
“You have my word Mr Bowen.”
“Okay my name is Captain Jason Bowen and this is Lieutenant Olivia Coln, we are in the Australian Special Forces.”
“Well Captain I know who you are now, you are here to speak to a man named Phillip Duddle aren’t you?”
“Well Yes.”
Jason was blown back as to how much Christofer knew.
“Captain I had been speaking with Phillip, and I was told to let you and your unit through customs without any problems.”
“Well thank you.”
“Oh and Captain if you ever need anything in Germany let me know and I’ll have it.”
“A black market man hey?”
Christofer leaned back in his chair and smiled.
Fifteen minutes later all of the unit members were standing outside the airport climbing into a rental bus.
Jason drove the bus in silence along a suburban street until he arrived at two storey brick house with a white picket fence.
“Is this it Jase?”
“Liv I know Dudsey, he wouldn’t live somewhere obvious. Alright everyone stay on the bus I’ll call you over shortly.”
Jason stepped off the bus and walked to the front door of the house and knocked. Moments later a man opened the door.
“Jason!” Dudsey opened his arms and gave Jase a big bear hug.
“Good to see you too Dudsey.”
“Jason don’t just stand there in the cold come in.”
“Well I hope you don’t mind a few extras.”
“Of course not Nadine is always expecting visitors.”
Jason waved his arm at the bus, signalling for the men to come to the house. One by one twelve men stepped off the bus and made a bee line straight for the house.
continue to part 3
“Jesus Jim, is she alright?” Jason asked as he lifted the chopper off the ground
“She’s fine; she just received the hardest hit I've ever seen.”
“What happened?”
“Some ******* hit her in the face the butt of his gun.”
“****.”
“Damn right, ****, he hit her so hard it put out instantly, I went to catch her and the bloody bastard tried to shoot me.”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah I’m fine.”
“What are we going to do now?”
“Right now we are going back to the FOB.”
“To do what sit on our arses and wait to get killed?”
“I’m going to have a word with General McCollum.”
Jim looked into the cockpit of the helicopter; Jason’s face was illuminated by the instruments on the dashboard, his expression determined, angry and undisturbed.
Just as the skids touched ground Liv came to. She had a massive bruise on her face that covered her whole cheek and eye. Jason jumped out of the pilot’s seat to check on her.
“Awww my head.”
When she opened her eyes she saw Jason in front of her and with that she wrapped her arms around his neck. Everybody in the camp had been noticing the two getting close but not that close. Jim and Southman just stood there smiling, it was Jim who first picked up on it, Liv and Jason had been dating but tried to hide it from the others and they had done a **** job.
“Anything you want to tell us Jase?”
“Well I’m pretty sure you’ve figured it out now.”
Jim stood there his arms crossed nodding smugly.
“Liv are you right to walk?”
“Yeah.”
“Southman could you help Liv back to her bunk I’m going to have a word with General McCollum.”
As Southman and Jim helped Liv up, Jason headed over to the VIP building. When he knocked on the door no response came so after waiting a moment he opened the door to find General McCollum on the concrete floor with a bullet wound that went straight through his chest. Jason leapt into action, kneeling over the General pumping his chest performing CPR whilst shouting for help.
“I need help in here!”
Moments after Jason called out two medics came in and four minutes later a doctor declared General McCollum dead.
When Jason arrived back at his bunk the others were waiting up, Liv sitting with an ice pack on her head. When he walked in the others noticed that Jason’s hands and front were covered in blood.
“What the hell did you do?”
“It’s not what I did it’s what Eln did.”
“Well?”
“McCollum got the times wrong and Eln killed him as punishment for the mistake.”
“So McCollum was leaking about the mission?”
“Yeah.”
Jason sat down beside Liv and put his arm around her.
“How’s your head?”
“Sore.”
Liv removed the ice pack, showing that that bruise had gotten worse; it had gone from a light purple colour to being a deep blue-black.
“Here show me.”
Liv turned her face toward Jason. As went to touch her cheek she pulled away and winced.
“The bloody bastard’s broken your cheek bone.”
“Feels like he broke my whole face.”
Jason pulled Liv into a tight hug.
“Alright I don’t know about you guys but I’m stuffed I’m going to bed.”
Jason lay down on his bed and closed his eyes and fell into a deep, deep sleep; his dreams were filled with haunting images of his mother and father’s death.
Jason’s parents had been driving on a lonely country road leading up to their farm house, when a black Humvee came out of nowhere and rammed them off the road into a tree. It wasn’t the crash that killed them; it was the hail of bullets that did it. At first everyone thought that it was just some mad man but it now occurred to Jason that it was indeed Colonel Peter Eln who was now in Jason's bad books and when you achieve that status you don’t have much longer to live.
In the morning Jason was woken by a firm hand shaking him awake.
“Captain Bowen! Wake up!”
Jason wearily opened his eyes and saw Colonel Challen standing before him.
“Yes Sir.”
“Captain Bowen I need to speak to you about the death of General McCollum.”
“Alright then.”
Jason got up and walked toward the Colonel’s office through the early morning fog.
“Captain I have no idea as to the reason General McCollum died last night and I was hoping you would know.”
“Well as a matter of fact I do know. When I told the General what time we were leaving on a recovery mission last night he told Colonel Eln, but when he told him got the times wrong and Eln killed him as a punishment.”
“Well it sounds like we need to go and find Eln.”
“It does Sir, but I think we may need more man power.”
“Well Captain this time I would like to go with you and I will wanting to take a few more people, of your choice of course.”
“Alright then.”
A group of soldiers sat in the back of two military trucks most of them not known for their names but their reputation. Jason had handpicked them, some coming from other provinces in Afghanistan and others being drafted in from Australia most had trained for this type of mission their whole life.
Jason sat in the front of the first truck with Challen at the wheel.
“Colonel why did you want to come with us?”
“First of all quit this Colonel business, call me Lachlan and I wanted to come because I want Eln’s *** on a plate, the General was my friend and I believe that McCollum was forced into doing what he did, I reckon Eln had a knife to his throat the whole time.”
When the convoy arrived at their destination, late at night they arrived silently leaving the trucks a distance up the road, Lachlan was in charge of half the unit which had split off to circle round behind Eln.
A day earlier Jason had received intell from a local farmer who had said he’d seen two Humvees and a group of American soldiers camped in the forest behind his house. When Jason looked into it, he found out that on no data base did it say that Americans were running an operation in Helmand Province he knew it was Eln.
It had been almost two months since the last time Jason had seen Eln and in that time a lot had happened; like road side attacks on other Australian Special forces units and more and more late night attacks on FOB Resolute from unknown attackers. These incidents had all happened on nights and days that Jason’s unit had been scheduled to go out on a patrol or reconnaissance mission it seemed like too much of a coincidence to Jason.
As the unit that Jason was commanding advanced closer to Eln’s camp Jason started to feel uneasy.
“Liv this doesn’t feel right.”
“Yeah I know.”
“This isn’t like Eln, he always moves, he never stays in the same place for more than two days, and he’s apparently been here for over a week.”
“Strange…”
“I’m starting to think it’s a trap.”
“Yeah me too, but we have numbers he doesn’t.”
“True.”
“Jase stop!”
“What is it Liv?”
“I've spotted his fire, Jason we finally have him!”
Liv ran towards the clearing unaware of what lay ahead.
“Liv stop it’s a trap!”
She was too far away to hear Jason’s pleas by then.
Liv ran silently through the scrub, gun up ready to fire. When she emerged in the clearing her face froze with sheer terror. All she saw was an empty clearing with a few empty tents and a small camp fire, she then saw the dozens of gun barrels poking out of the bushes around the clearing, Liv was scared out of her mind so she slowly put her F88 on the ground, dropped to her knees and placed her hands on the back of her head, liv then closed her eyes and waited for the end. A single shot was fired and it was heard by everyone in the area.
Jason heard the shot and a chill instantly ran up his spine. Jason broke into a sprint but before he arrived at the edge of the tree line a firm hand grabbed him and pulled him back.
“Jason what are you doing?”
“Jim let me go!”
“No!”
“Jim they’ve got Liv, for Christs sake, I’m begging you, let me go.”
Jim took a moment and looked at Jason; Jason stared back at Jim through bloodshot, pleading eyes.
“Please Jim, just let me go, I need to do this.”
Jim let go of Jason and allowed him go off and help Liv.
Jason leapt out of the trees startling one of the soldiers. He saw a ring of men around Liv who was lying in a pool of blood, not moving.
“Well if it isn’t Captain Bowen stepping in to be a hero again.”
“Eln, if you let her go you can have me.”
Jason removed his mask to reveal his tear stained face.
“Well if it isn’t a little love on the battlefield.”
Jason drew his pistol and placed the barrel under his chin.
“Eln if you don’t let her go I’ll pull the trigger and you will have no password, I can delete this ****ing password as easy as pulling the trigger, don’t make me do it Colonel.”
Jim and Southman were watching this commence from the tree line. They watched Jason put his gun to his head, his legs were trembling wildly.
“Okay Captain it’s a deal, get some of your mates to come out and collect her.”
“No funny business Eln!”
Lachlan landed smoothly beside Southman.
“Southman what the hell is going on?”
“Jase is about to save Liv but die doing it.”
“Damn it.”
“Southman! Jim! I need you out here right now.” Jason called from the clearing.
Southman and Jim emerged from the scrub and just before Jim went to help Southman he stopped in front of Jason.
“Jase you don’t have to do this, we can get you and liv out of this, and we outnumber them.’
“Jim just get Liv the **** out of here that’s an order!” He shouted angrily.
“Yes Sir.”
The two men gently lifted Liv and as quick as a flash they were gone again leaving Jason alone in that deadly situation.
“Okay Captain drop your gun.” Eln said with a concerned tone
Jason dropped his gun and knelt on the ground, he then closed his eyes, just as Liv did but this time receiving the butt of a gun in the face, and then black.
When Jason awoke he could hear the muffled voices of men and he could see the insides of an aircraft; a plane; a considerably large one at that. He then heard another voice a very, very familiar one.
“Sir Bowen’s awake.”
“Well we can’t have that can we?”
Jason lifted his head to see Eln give a masked soldier a bottle containing a chemical of some sort. When he lifted his head further he saw the man soaking a rag in the chemical; chloroform. The man walked over purposefully and lifted Jason’s head gently before placing the rag over Jason's nose and mouth, but something stopped him.
“Sir he pretty out to it, if we want to keep him alive we need to give him some water and treatment, he’s not very comprehensive.”
“Okay do whatever you need to do to keep him alive for now.”
Jason saw the masked man leave the cell that he was lying in, the cold steel floor made him shiver. When the man came back he was holding a white first aid kit, the soldier crouched beside Jason and turned toward Eln.
“Jesus, what did your boys do to him?”
“He went crazy on us and tried to kill himself.”
“****!”
When the man turned back toward Jason his mask was off and Jason saw who he really was. The man caring for him was indeed some one that Jason knew, it was his adoptive brother; Markus. Markus was a tall strong man in his late twenties, his complexion was dark, and he had olive skin and dark, deep brown eyes. Markus was only two years younger than Jason who was thirty-one.
“Markus?” Jason wheezed
“That’s right Jase, it’s me. Jesus Jase you look terrible.”
Jason’s parents had adopted Markus when Jason was only four so he had known him his whole life.
“Soldier, do you know this man?”
“Yes Sir, he’s my brother.”
“Well Jason isn’t it a small world?” Eln smirked and turned back away in his chair.
Markus opened up the medical kit and took out some wipes and wiped away the dried blood on Jason’s face.
“So how have you been Jason?”
“What does it look like?” Jason coughed
“Good point you look like it’s been ****.”
Markus pulled Jason off the cold metal floor and onto the wooden bench that was in the cell and started to apply clean dressings to his wounds. Jason’s eyes started to flicker; he was going to pass out, Markus performed a quick, sharp slap on his face waking him up.
“Come on stay with me Jase. Colonel what the hell did your boys do to him? He’s nearly dead Sir.”
Colonel Eln rose from his chair and walked over to the door of the cell.
“Lieutenant do whatever it takes to keep him alive for now, and as for what my boys did to him, well that is none of your business, now get back to work.”
Markus turned back to Jason and set up a drip hanging from the bars of the cell.
“Markus…”
“What is it buddy?”
“Can you get me a drink?”
“Sure thing.”
Markus reached around his utility belt and found a black canteen and poured some icy water into Jason’s mouth.
“Sir that’s just about all I can do for him.”
“Well put that chloroform to use soldier, we can’t have him knowing where he is.”
Markus reached for the bottle and soaked the rag again.
“Sorry Jase.”
Markus then put the rag over Jason’s nose and mouth and yet again everything went black.
Back at FOB Resolute Jim was pacing the floor of the unit’s quarters and Southman was taking his anger out on an improvised punching bag in an improvised gym. Meanwhile Liv was being worried over in the hospital. She had four or five doctors standing over her bed arguing with Lachlan.
“Colonel she needs to be sent home for proper treatment!”
“And I say she gets treated here and stays here!”
“Sir she can’t get the treatment she needs here!”
Lachlan stepped toward the weedy framed doctor.
“Doctor she is one of the most important people in Afghanistan, we need her here!”
“Well she’s just one important person whose going home.”
“Okay smart fella step outside with me for a moment.”
Lachlan literally dragged the doctor outside into the heat.
“Now listen here! One of our men is being held captive and we need her to get him back! Would you deny a man’s freedom based on the fact that you think she needs to go home?”
“Sir I don’t follow your orders! She is going home!”
Lachlan lost his temper laying into the defenceless doctor with his fists. Challen hit the doctor repeatedly in the face and then stood up and looked down at the bleeding man.
“Doctor, a man’s life hangs in the balance right now and it just so happens to be, that that man and Lieutenant Coln love each other, now if that was me in Liv’s position I’d be pissed off, so if I were you, I’d watch out because when Liv is pissed off she has potential to kill.”
“She stays Sir.”
“I thought so.”
Jason woke up to the feeling of have the needle that was connected to the drip being ripped out of his arm. He was then grabbed by two men and dragged out of the plane and across a tarmac. It was dark so he couldn’t tell where he was, the only thing he did know was that he had left Afghanistan a few hours ago. He was dragged through a building he didn’t recognise at all. Jason was thrown through a door in which was a room that contained two chairs and a table; interrogation time.
Eln walked into the room purposefully stood over Jason and summoned in two masked men.
“Soldier! How do you expect me to speak to him when he’s slumped on the floor like that? Put him on the chair for Christ’s sake.”
The two men roughly threw Jason on to the folding chair that was in front of the table.
“So Captain, I never knew you had a brother, I was always under the illusion that you were an only child.”
“Colonel, Markus is my adoptive brother, I’m not blood related to him at all.”
“So he knows nothing of the password?”
“Nothing.”
“Well let’s cut to the chase, Jason what is the password?”
“I’ll tell you the password, the password is **** you! That’s what it is!”
Eln stood up to strike Jason when one of the masked men grabbed his wrist; Markus.
“What the hell are you playing at?”
“I’ve stood bystander for long! I’m not going to let you hit my brother!”
As if right on time Jason heard an enormous boom and then gun shots; they’d come for him. In an instant Lachlan busted down the door of the interrogation room and fired two shots into Eln’s torso, dropping him to the floor instantly. Markus let go of Eln and put Jason over his shoulder and ran toward the exit with Lachlan, Southman, Jim and Liv.
“Come on! Head for the plane.”
The group headed for the huge 747 that was idling on the runway of the airport. Markus scaled the staircase two steps at a time behind the others before bursting into the empty plane. James Kennelly had recovered and was out of hospital and behind the controls of the great plane, the whole unit was there.
When inside the plane Lachlan marched over towards where Markus was standing over Jason.
“What’s your name?”
“Lieutenant Markus Bowen. Sir!”
“Bowen? Are you at all related to Jason?”
“He’s my brother Sir.”
“You’re lying, Jason was an only child!”
“I was adopted into his family.”
“Challen settle down, it’s true, Markus is my adoptive brother.”
“Jase!”
Liv rushed to Jason’s side, kissing him gently on the cheek.
“God I thought I’d lost you.”
“You would’ve if wasn’t for Markus.”
Markus just stood there looking down at Jason.
“Well I’d like to stay and have a chat but I feel like **** and I would like to get some proper sleep.”
Southman and Jim helped Jase up and walked him to one of the bunks.
When Jason woke the scene in the plane had changed dramatically, there was people walking around busy as a bee and others just sitting around relaxing and there was now a light weight armoured vehicle in the cargo hold.
When he was fully awake Jason walked slowly toward where he had seen Eln relaxing earlier, only now he saw Jim, Bird and Southman.
“Well you’re up to walking now?”
“Yeah I still feel like I’ve got a hangover times twelve.”
“Yeah well you look like it too.”
“Thanks.”
“Oi Jase! You want something to eat?”
“Yeah I’m starving!”
Markus walked over from the kitchen part of the plane and dropped a bowl of soggy Weetabix on the table in front of Jason.
“Sorry it’s all we’ve got.”
Jason sat and stared at the bowl of mush in front of him before pushing it away.
“Sorry, I’m just not in the mood for cardboard.”
“Jase you need to eat it, you haven’t eaten anything since you left Afghanistan.”
“I’ll be fine that was only a few hours ago.”
Liv looked at Jim with a concerned expression.
“Jase, that was three days ago.”
“Oh wow, now I really feel hungry.”
Jason picked up the spoon and pulled the bowl closer to him and started shovelling the slop into his mouth.
Lachlan walked over and greeted Jason by giving him a sharp slap on the back making Jason gag on the food in his mouth.
“Ahem. Hello Lachlan.” He said while clearing his throat.
“Hello Jason, how are you?”
“Better.”
“Good.”
“What happened back in where ever we were?”
“Well Jason you were in Saudi Arabia back when Eln had you.’
“****. Oh and where are we headed now?”
“Well I understand you have a friend named Dudsey.”
“Yeah but I don’t know where he is.”
“We do, we just found out he’s in Germany, and we’ve even gotten in contact with him.”
Dudsey was a good friend of Jason’s; his proper name was Phillip Duddle. Phillip was an average heighted man who had golden blonde hair and to be honest he was a bit of a larrikin but was a master with explosives and artillery.
“Well how far are we from Germany?”
Lachlan pressed an intercom switch and spoke into it.
“James what’s the ETA in Germany?”
The intercom buzzed with a response a moment later.
“Ten minutes Sir.”
“Alright then ladies, pack your **** we’re going site seeing!”
With that the whole plane came alive and men were everywhere packing combat items and even personal effects.
Lachlan rose from his chair and shouted above the noise.
“Ladies and gentlemen may I inform you that we will be under cover so dress in civilian attire, but that is not a reason as to not to carry a weapon.”
The silver painted 747 touched grounds at the Frankfurt airport and the men and women that were on the plane unloaded and headed for the airport building passports in hand.
“Oi Jase how are we going to get past customs with all these weapons?”
“We’ll go to customs and ask to speak to someone in charge.”
Jason and Liv went to the same terminal when a customs officer stopped them.
“Bitte kommen diese weg für ein willkürlich tüte überprüfen.”
Translation: please come this way for a random bag check.
“Jason what do we do?”
“Just go with it for now. Okay.”
The pair followed the customs officer over to a bench where they were then ordered to put their luggage on the table. When the official opened the bag his eyes widened when he saw the F88 assault rifle, the two pistols along with the grenades.
“Sprechen zee deutsch?”
Translation: do you speak German?
“Ein Kleine.”
Trans: A little.
Jason slowly said his German phrases to the officer.
“Ich sprechen Englisch.”
Trans: I speak English
The officer immediately changed from speaking German to speaking English.
“So Mr…”
“Bowen.”
“So Mr Bowen why do you have so many undeclared weapons in your luggage?”
“Before we move on I would like to speak to someone in charge.”
“Mr Bowen I am in charge, I am the head customs officer.”
“Well I would like to explain things in private then, away from the wrong ears.”
The officer eyed Liv and Jason for a moment.
“Okay then and by the way my name is Christofer König.”
Christofer lead Liv and Jason down a long hallway and into an interview room. Before sitting down Jason placed the pistol that he had tucked into the belt of his jeans on the table in front of Christofer.
“So Mr Bowen would you tell as for the reason for all the undeclared weapons in your bags?”
“I’ll tell you as long as you promise that whatever I tell you in this room stay a secret, no one can find out.”
“You have my word Mr Bowen.”
“Okay my name is Captain Jason Bowen and this is Lieutenant Olivia Coln, we are in the Australian Special Forces.”
“Well Captain I know who you are now, you are here to speak to a man named Phillip Duddle aren’t you?”
“Well Yes.”
Jason was blown back as to how much Christofer knew.
“Captain I had been speaking with Phillip, and I was told to let you and your unit through customs without any problems.”
“Well thank you.”
“Oh and Captain if you ever need anything in Germany let me know and I’ll have it.”
“A black market man hey?”
Christofer leaned back in his chair and smiled.
Fifteen minutes later all of the unit members were standing outside the airport climbing into a rental bus.
Jason drove the bus in silence along a suburban street until he arrived at two storey brick house with a white picket fence.
“Is this it Jase?”
“Liv I know Dudsey, he wouldn’t live somewhere obvious. Alright everyone stay on the bus I’ll call you over shortly.”
Jason stepped off the bus and walked to the front door of the house and knocked. Moments later a man opened the door.
“Jason!” Dudsey opened his arms and gave Jase a big bear hug.
“Good to see you too Dudsey.”
“Jason don’t just stand there in the cold come in.”
“Well I hope you don’t mind a few extras.”
“Of course not Nadine is always expecting visitors.”
Jason waved his arm at the bus, signalling for the men to come to the house. One by one twelve men stepped off the bus and made a bee line straight for the house.
continue to part 3